Rural School Students’ Attitudes and Perceptions toward the Engineering Education and the Engineering Profession

Abstract

As the growth of science and technology accelerates, the prospect of engineering as a field of study and profession gains importance. Many school students prefer to study engineering in the future and work as engineers. Examining their views on engineering will help correct frivolous attitudes and proactively revamp engineering education. However, only a few studies have been conducted on secondary school students’ attitudes and perceptions toward engineering, especially from the schools located on rural outskirts. Against this backdrop, this study critically examines rural secondary school students’ attitudes and perceptions of engineering education and the engineering profession. The students were part of the Rural Student Technical Enhancement Program (R-STEP), conducted by the IEEE Education Society. The program was designed as a free-of-cost advanced technical training and skilling session for rural higher secondary students in Kerala, a southern state in India. The data collection for the study was performed by administering a questionnaire containing ten questions, among which five were concerning engineering education, and the other five were on the engineering profession. The questionnaire was prepared in the regional language (Malayalam), considering the respondents’ age group and background. A total of 225 responses were collected from students from various districts of Kerala. The questionnaire responses were then critically analyzed to interpret students’ opinions on engineering education and profession. The research findings show that nearly 60% of rural higher secondary school students sincerely aspire to become engineers. It is also observed that about 50% of students acknowledge that engineers should exhibit problem-solving skills. Another noticeable finding is that about 80% of students accept the significance of practical laboratory-oriented learning in engineering education. On the other hand, more than 30% of students are confused about the significance of mathematics in engineering. Another 30% of students even observed that mathematical aptitude is not obligatory for engineering education. More insights from other questions identified students’ attitudes and perceptions toward the engineering profession. The study concludes with a few curative suggestions and recommendations to enhance rural school students’ awareness of engineering education and profession.